Is the value of a social share on the wane?

The practice of sharing interesting things on our social networks is on the rise, in conjunction with the still increasing numbers of people actively using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Is the value of each share rising along with the volume however?

Evidence from events website Eventbrite would suggest not. They regularly provide data on the financial value attached to a share of their events on the major social networks. Their latest data was released at the back end of October and reveals that each share is still pretty valuable for them.

Social network

Value per share

Facebook

£2.56

Twitter

£1.15

LinkedIn

£0.57

Not only does Facebook provide the most value per share, they also provide the most value per clickthrough, suggesting that people are more inclined to look for events on Facebook. All of which seems reasonable enough.

How do these figures stack up historically though? They produced some figures earlier this year, and also figures for 2011 and 2010. Lets have a look:

Social network

Value per share Autumn 2012

Value per share Spring 2012

Value per share 2011

Value per share 2010

Facebook

£2.56

£2.58

£1.57

£1.57

Twitter

£1.15

£1.21

£0.29

£0.29

LinkedIn

£0.57

£0.47

£0.56

£0.56

So whilst there has been progress since they first began tracking revenue per share in 2010, their figures have fallen since Spring (with the exception of LinkedIn).

Comparisons with other industries

It should be noted that few industries publicise their social media data like Eventbrite do, so direct comparison is difficult. Given that Eventbrite have been amongst the best at integrating their product with social networks however, you have to assume that their revenues are towards the top end of the market.

It will be interesting to see if the dip from earlier this year is the start of a trend for them or merely a blip they will overcome. It would be interesting to hear from you all on how the value of your own social shares is doing. Are you seeing more revenue per share? Let me know in the comments.